On the Iraqi Patriotic Alliance

Since 2003, the Iraqi people have been carrying out a heroic
resistance against the U.S. occupation of their fatherland. With a sentiment of
enormous patriotism, various Iraqis are taking up resistance and have imposed
various defeats on the invading troops.

Vitor Madeira and Sandino Patriota

A Verdade: What is the Iraqi Patriotic Alliance, and when was
it formed?

Sami Alaa: It is acoordination of different
political groups, composed of a section of the Baath Party, Pan-Arab parties,
the Patriotic Communist Movement, Kurdish and Turkoman nationalist groups and
two small Christian and Muslim nationalist groups. The principal character of
the alliance is anti-imperialist.

We formed the Alliance in 1992. The unification took place in
view of the imperialist aggression of 1991. At that time, we tried to unify
different Iraqi exile groups to defend our country from any imperialist
aggression. Before the war, in 2003, we made an appeal for the unification of
Iraq to defend our country and to resist the war and occupation. After the war,
we called on all Iraqis to resist the occupation and we are working seriously to
support this resistance.

A Verdade: What was the position of the Iraqi Patriotic
Alliance during the government of Saddam Hussein?

Alaa: At that time we called on everyone to national
conciliation, but we were always very critical of the form of government of the
country, observing that a political opening and democratic measures were
necessary to unify the Iraqi political forces. Six months before the war, we
sent a delegation to Iraq to negotiate with the Saddam’s government and provoke
a discussion about a new constitution and about a political opening, tending to
clarify that a war was near.

A Verdade: What is the situation in Iraq like now?

Alaa: We have very special situations, since at the head
of the popular resistance it has always succeeded in mobilising the people. The
armed resistance is now very strong, and it includes Pan-Arabs, patriotic
communists, a section of the Baath Party and religious groups. The political
resistance, however, is not unified. Therefore we have to work to unify it and
to further support the armed resistance.

A Verdade: What are the principal concrete actions of
resistance within Iraq today?

Alaa: The armed Iraqi resistance is divided into three
groups. The first is known as the patriotic one, and it is composed of members
of the Baath Party, patriotic communists and Pan-Arabs. The second is made up of
soldiers and officers of the formal Iraqi army. The third is constituted of
small Sunni and Christian religious groups.

In the first group, it is necessary to make a distinction
between the members of the Baath Party and the party itself, because the Baath
Party was officially dissolved. This means that its members and the patriotic
communists do not represent themselves as members of a political party but are
there as a current with an ideological identification.

Of these three groups, the religious one is the smallest; it
controls more or less 10% of the Iraqi resistance. It is important to know that
we are not fighting for a thought or ideological current, but for Iraq and for
the Iraqi State.

A Verdade: What is the position of the Patriotic Alliance on
the electoral farce that took place in Iraq in January, and what are the forces
that are supporting the United States invasion?

Alaa: We consider the invasion and the war as
illegitimate, and naturally the political process of the invasion is
illegitimate as well, according to international laws. All the institutions and
legislation produced by the invasion are not recognised, whether it be the Iraqi
Governing Council or the interim government. Therefore we say that this election
is a farce, because its motive was to legalise the assassinations committed by
the U.S. troops. Since then we initiated a boycott of all the institutions
formed to legalise the invasion. We do not believe in free and democratic
elections under an invasion. This is a contradiction in itself.

Imperialism says that there are 207 parties that support the
invasion, but we do not believe this. There are parties of only one person. The
ones that really exist and support the occupation are two Shiite parties, two
Kurdish parties and the revisionist Communist Party of Iraq.

A Verdade: What were the victories obtained by the Iraqi
resistance and what are the perspectives of continuing the fight against the
Empire?

Alaa: At this time there are many clear victories
obtained by the resistance. Several times we managed to militarily defeat the
invasion. This is despite the fact that the occupation is using all types of
arms to massacre us, arms prohibited internationally – lethal chemical gas in
Fallujah. They are already convinced that the Iraqi resistance cannot be
defeated.

When we are able to defeat the occupation and liberate
cities, we organise the people for the work of resistance and we create militias
so that these cities serve to continue the fight for liberation. The occupation
uses tactics of surrounding these cities and provoking divisions and conflicts
within the population, and it also finances and arms Shiite and Kurdish groups.

A Verdade: What can the peoples of the world do to create
solidarity with the Iraqi resistance?

Alaa: The Iraqi resistance is truly legitimate and has
proven its popularity not only in the Middle East, but in the whole world. It
has also proven its strength in the fight against the occupation. But we cannot
defeat an economic, technological and military superpower alone; we need all the
peoples who support our fight.

The Iraqi resistance does not need money, nor does it need
arms nor people, since we have all of these in Iraq. All that we need is a clear
political support.

It is fundamental, also, that the anti-imperialist forces in
the world should unify their actions. In this sense there exists a plan of the
anti-imperialist camp to establish an anti-imperialist World Forum which will
fulfil that objective. We are very grateful that a Committee for a Free Iraq
could be established in Brazil. In Europe there are 11 of these committees, and
they have promised to form one in Argentine. The committee has the role of
unifying all the political forces which support the Iraqi resistance so that
they can work together and develop the support to the resistance.

A Verdade: In the name of the Patriotic Alliance, leave a
message to all the readers and collaborators of A Verdade and to all those who
work for the Iraqi cause in Brazil.

Alaa: We thank the Revolutionary Communist Party and the
journal A Verdade for the invitation and for the space for this
interview. We are very glad to have established contact with you. We thank you
as well for having aided us in the demonstration, and we would like to continue
with our cooperation. We know that the Brazilian popular movement and social
organisations have their own agenda of struggles and mobilisations, and we ask
all the members that we coordinate the daily struggles with the anti-imperialist
mobilisations of support to the Iraqi resistance.

From: ‘A Verdade’, March 2005.
Translated from the Portuguese by George Gruenthal.